Jobs Confirms iPhone "Kill Switch"

It was a little, tiny, tiny addendum at the end of a WSJ article, but it was there: in an interview with the WSJ, Steve Jobs confirmed that the suspected iPhone "kill switch" does indeed exist. Of course, for investors, talk of the App Store downloads are probably more exciting, and Jobs detailed that as well:

If sales stay at the current pace, Apple stands to reap at least $360 million a year in new revenue from the App Store, Mr. Jobs said. "This thing's going to crest a half a billion, soon," he added. "Who knows, maybe it will be a $1 billion marketplace at some point in time."

"I've never seen anything like this in my career for software," he said.

60 million downloads? Of course, many were free, but Apple still averaged $1 million in sales a day.

Now about that "kill switch," which we wrote about earlier:

Mr. Jobs confirmed such a capability exists, but argued that Apple
needs it in case it inadvertently allows a malicious program -- one
that stole users' personal data, for example -- to be distributed to
iPhones through the App Store. "Hopefully we never have to pull that
lever, but we would be irresponsible not to have a lever like that to
pull," he says.

The lack of openness about this "feature" is likely what caused the firestorm of emotion across the Web. And, naturally, the continuing lack of openness about decision-making processes regarding what gets on the App Store, and what stays there, doesn't help.